Its not easy to forget Wilf lunn. Wilf was like a bizarre art teacher that had just come back from some psycaedelic do in Wiltshire - he totally blew kids minds. Here was a guy who didn't seem to conform to ANYTHING. Kids respected that and he had a kind of magic about him too.

Wilf got a start in Television after actor James Mason put him in touch with an agent and after he opened an exhibition of his wacky cycles, Joan Bakewell suggested he get into television and he appeared (somewhat the worse for wear) on 'Late Night Lineup'. Then it was 'Magpie' before finally finding a slot in 'Vision On' after being asked to make a doorbell machine for them (he'd previously been turned down by Patrick). He stayed with Vision On for quite a while. In fact, to this day, Wilf's influence extends to my socks which I refuse to wear as a matching pair, partly to encourage the usual "Your socks don't match" and to fire up a debate over why socks SHOULD match in the first place. Feel free to debate this one with friends and elderly relatives. The great thing of course is that you need never worry again about matching pairs up after they've been through the wash and its a great way to make new friends.

Wilf said he was petrified the first time he appeared on Vision On. He spent most of the day behind the set - not sure when he was meant to come on, and in those days the final programme was sent down the phone line at an allotted time so basically you hoped you'd get at least two rehearsals in on the one day so that when the final programme went out (effectively live), it would all be done in one take. That meant everyone had to be on their toes to make sure each item came in on cue as planned.

He recently rang me at Vision On HQ to chat about the early years with Vision On and I'll try to add these in as soon as I can. Wilf has a lovely down-to-earth approach to life, tinged with surrealism. Both his parents were deaf and his father never learnt to talk, which made his childhood rather different from other kids in his street. Wilf has done many things since Vision On of course, indeed he's a multi-talented man and his cycle exhibitions have had rave reviews.

Ocassionally mistaken for the late and great Vivian Stanshall (what a duo that might have been), Wilf is a surreal artist, cartoonist, satirist, as well as a brilliantly funny writer. Wilf is just unique. I was tempted to say 'plain unique' but theres nothing remotely plain about this Yorkshire lad. You never quite know what to expect next. Wilf remarked on the phone that perhaps the surreal stuff should be left out of his autobiography, but if like me, you've read some of Wilf's work, you'll enjoy and appreciate the absurdities of 'trial by jam sandwich' and the real dangers of corned beef, and just want more of it.

Wilf Lunn is a national treasure. Certainly 'uddersfield is all the more richer for having this creative and funny man in its fold - even if it hasn't actually twigged it yet. We HIGHLY recommend you explore the Wilf Lunn Website for yourself. Oh, and if you're wondering who they are behind the Lunn diguises, they are: John Prescott MP, Lance Percival, Harold Wilson, Arthur Mullard, HRH Prince Charles, and Churchill. Wilf Lunn also has an online shop.

The b3Ta Wilf Lunn Interview

The Vision On Annual

The 'Vision On' annual (only one ever produced) entitled "A book of nonsense with some sense in it" had a foreword (presumably written by Patrick Dowling) which summed up very well what Vision on was about, and indeed, the nature of surrealism:

"This book has been made this way because it's mainly about looking at things - and because if you put things in the proper way, people sometimes stop looking at them. Which means that nonsense is sometimes more sensible than sense - it depends which way you look at it"

Who can forget 'Humphrey' (the tortoise) & Susanne' - in fact there are no end of tortoises around called 'Humphrey' (now you know why). Incidentally, Suzanne is the late Les Lilley's daughter and Suzanne's brother Mathew did a few for a while too. Sue recently wrote to us with the following account:

"It all started with my Dad, Les Lilley, he was a script writer who had worked on programmes such as Beyond Belief, The Two Ronnie’s, The Golden Shot and many more.  He knew Pat Dowling and was commissioned to write the Burbles for a new programme called Vision On.  As time went on the idea of Susanne and Humphrey was born and over a brain storming session my Dad volunteered me to be the “little girl” who talked to the tortoise through speech bubbles and still photographs.  Being only about 4 at the time I had little say in the matter.

Dad used to work in our spare bedroom tapping away on his typewriter, buried under mounds of scripts and mountains of books.  He, and I think other writers, devised the scripts and the first I ever knew about it was one morning my Mum dressing me up in my best 60’s clobber, brushing my hair, scrubbing my face and saying that someone was coming over to take a few photographs of me.  I was so proud of my best outfit and felt fantastic, its only looking back that I see I was wearing a red PVC all in one hot pant suit, that was a little too short and revealed my knickers!!  Not being allowed to play in the garden and having strict orders not to get dirty was the order of the day.  Difficult for a 4 year old.

Eventually a huge van filled with people and a rather mysterious crate pulled up outside our home.  I was mortifyingly shy as a kid and remember being rather taken aback with all the attention I seemed to generate, but dutifully stayed out of the way while people dashed around the garden putting up lights and photographic equipment.  Then the crate was bought out into the garden and gently opened. This gigantic tortoise was gently coaxed out of the box.  In the 60’s tortoises were common place as pets, but this one was like nothing I had ever seen before.  It was mammoth and it lumbered out and proceeded to survey the chaos in the garden.  I learned later that it had been borrowed from London Zoo for the day and a keeper had come along as an escort to make sure it behaved itself.  Inevitably the combination of children and animals made the day go less smoothly than anticipated.  I don’t know if you know but tortoises can move rather fast when they want to and my biggest memory of the day was the constant rush of people dashing after this monster before it got out of shot, or disappeared behind the shed to a rather delicious patch of dandelions.  After what seemed like an age of being positioned in various pointing at, squatting next to, and leaning over the tortoise poses, it was time for lunch and everyone agreed we should take a break. Mum bought me my lunch and the keeper disappeared into the van outside in the road.  He came back with a polystyrene container, with its own plastic knife, fork and napkin, that had a rather limp looking salad inside that someone had picked up from BBC Television Centre canteen….for the tortoise.  By this time I had warmed to the beast and remember being fascinated seeing it chew through this salad with such delight.

After this first photo session it was decided that there was no need to have both of us in the same place again and the whole dynamic changed.  I had to learn to act!!!  Photographers would come to my home without the tortoise and take photos of me pointing at an upturned flower pot and I had to pretend to be talking to this terracotta tortoise substitute. Not so much fun, but far less labour intensive as there didn’t need to be hoards of people trying to keep the tortoise in the shot.

I only got one trip out of the garden for the photographs, and that was when I was taken to The Tower of London for a shoot.  We did a story with the Beefeaters at The Tower and and Ravens had a starring role too.  The Chief Yeoman had volunteered to be photographed and we spent the day pointing, as usual, at upturned flower pots and Ravens.  At the end of the day the Yeoman invited the crew into the officer’s mess inside the Tower, but as I was under age I was carted off to his quarters to play with his children while my Dad and crew had a drink.  The Tower Of London is like a village as all the Beefeaters have homes inside the Tower.  My Dad escorted me to this flat and left me in the hands of this strange lady and a couple of older kids.  They terrorised me for the next few hours with stories of ghosts as the flat was next door to the dungeon where they had kept Guy Fawkes before he was executed. 

I appeared on Vision On until I was about 7 years old, and only lost the job as my front teeth fell out and I became too old.  I was replaced by one of the photographer’s daughters who pretended to be Susanne, and towards the end of the series my brother Matthew did a brief stint with a Hippopotamus called Pom.  I remember being extremely jealous as he got to go to BBC Television Centre to do his photo session with a very much larger upturned flower pot.

The best part of all was that after each photo session my Dad used to take me to Hamleys toy store in Regents Street and stand in the doorway and say “choose what you want”.  The only drawback was that I was never a very demanding child and consequently I would wander around the store and settle for something rather modest.  The only things I remember buying were a slide for the garden, and a stuffed toy horse made of material which resembled 70’s wallpaper (which I still have)."

Sue

Arril Johnson did a lot of work on Vision On (and Take Hart) right from the beginning. He now teaches animation. Characters he created for Vision On included Auggie the Dinosaur (often seen at the beginning of earliers programmes), Bookworm, Sketch, and Cursor, as well as a miscellany of one-off characters

"In the early days, particularly with my first character, Auggie the dinosaur, I used to give the animation drawings to a friend who taught in a primary school. It gave me satisfaction to think that the drawings had a second life under the crayons of the young children who formed our audience.

Twenty years is a long time on one programming strand, but it's a nice round number. I was doing acting, modelmaking, and animation on more commercial projects throughout that time, but the freedom of being given a one word brief and running with it was wonderful. Animation is hard play...... in this case, the word 'play' carried greater weight."

Arril says he has developed an interest in live action and acting again. Below is a 'Bookworm cycle' which he recently re-used in a book on animation put together by AVA Publishers. "I contributed two tutorial chapters and Auggie makes an appearance too. I suppose the worm's boot-bounce is symbolic of optimism and cheerful resourcefulness. Not a bad thing...." - Arril Johnson

You can also find a short piece by Arril Johnson called 'Considered Response'

Other animations that formed part of Vision On's output included work by Anna Fodorova, Mirek Lang, Peter Lang, David Sproxton and Peter lord. Oliver Postgate also made one short 2 minute B/W animation to use as a clip in one programme in which he appeared. "I made some cardboard people which came to life and their fire-engine squirted water at me - actually the floor manager squirted me with a soda syphon. It wasn't very convincing." Oliver Postage has his own site (and blog) which looks at how Childrens Television has changed amongst other things. (Link above).

If you know of ANYONE who contributed to Vision On, do let us know - we know there were many many more. Penny Nuttal-Smith we know nothing of so please email us if you have any further info.

Mirek Lang, Peter Lang and Alex Brychta

He quickly realised that he didn't have the language or background knowledge to continue in his field in this country, so began looking for other opportunities. Inspired by Edward deBono's "Lateral Thinking" books, he came up with an idea for an animated series made up of characters, constructed from geometric shapes.
This was thinking laterally indeed! He had no artistic training, nor had he made any animations before. And remember, in the late sixties there were no "How to..." animation manuals. He had some animator friends in Germany from whom he picked up some tips. He built himself an animation rostrum from dexion and an old wind up Bolex. And off he went... click, click, click. No drawings, just cut-outs.
Although the series didn't happen, the pilot served as an introduction to the then head of children's BBC, Monika Sims. She took him under her wing and introduced him to Patrick Dowling.

I used to go along to some of the production meetings as an interpreter. I was about 14 at the time. At one of these meetings I mentioned to Patrick, that I have been doing some animation of my own, and he offered to have a look at my "reel".
I had been inspired by the likes of Terry Gillian and with my best friend, Alex Brychta, made a couple of short animated "sketches". I went to school with Alex. Both his parents were artists, and so he was the star art student. He has gone on to fame, illustrating the "Biff and Chip" Oxford Learning Tree, early reading books. They have recently had all their charm and magic removed (in my opinion), in the animated series, "The Magic Key".

Our first film was based on Alex's drawing, "The Rubbish Factory", which shows a very complex re-processing plant, reprocessing rubbish as rubbish. Patrick saw this and we struck a deal. They would give us the film and have it processed. If they showed it, they'd pay us £25. "We cannot return any of your animations, but we give a prize for all those we show". What a chance for a couple of schoolboys! I think Mirek's terms were a bit more lucrative, but not a lot. So, Mirek was animating the Cuckoo Clock and Mr Blue (the little man in the blue bowler hat who usually got involved with the escaping numbers). The clock artwork was initially done by Alex's father, Jan Brychta. Additions were cobbled together by Mirek and me. I was gradually becoming aware that I might find the ability to draw useful, so I started to pay more attention in art classes at school. I did a few films with Alex, many on my own. There was never a series here, just one offs. There was "The Spider-eating Man", "The Crashing Ducks", "The Unreliable Sofa", "The Reliable Sofa", etc, etc, etc. Too many to name or remember. It was a great way to learn and experiment. A great start. Thanks to Vision On. At the time I was involved with Vision On there were other names associated with it such as Clive Doig, director; David Sproxton and Peter Lord (Aardman) animating Superman; Wilf Lunn (Mad Inventor) ; Ben Bennison, Mime; Sylveste McCoy,Presenter; Peter Harwood, Sound FX; Bill Mather, animation(I always thought he had something to do with 50's workman animation ); Penny Nuttal-Smith? , animation.

After Vision On, Mirek and I made a series called Ludwig. This was a fly on the wall animation looking at the lives of some woodland animals, and what happens when an alien, Beethoven loving egg comes to live with them. Mirek continued to make animations for Over the Moon and other programmes. His evolution of the species is on a loop at the Natural History Museum. He retired about ten years ago. I went on to animate Pigeon Street with Alan Rogers."

Peter Lang

(Mirek Lang died in December 2005)

So there you have it, the bird/clock animation was made by Mirek Lang. It was always accompanied by 'Gurney Slade' by Max Harris. His son Peter also contributed to Vision On and now works with Alan Rogers, between them forming the Cut-Out Animation Company in 1985. We are most grateful to Peter for taking the trouble to tell us all this and its wonderful that there is some recognition of Mirek's work here at 'Its' Prof Again'. Peter informs me that Mirek (now in his 80s') has recently taken to smoking a pipe! A showreel of the Cut-Out Animation Company can be found here - well worth seeing!

The person who taught me animation was a Jazz player. He had his own band in Bristol called "Professor Cliff Brown & His Aligator Jug Thumpers". I was 11 years old when I met him. I had been making 8mm films since the age of 9 and when I went to senior school (having failed my 11+ exam) I went to a friends house for tea. His dad was there dressed up like a pirate and this was Cliff Brown, the most incredible person I had ever met, we got talking and it turned out he was a cartoonist for a boys comic and his charater was called "Timothy Tester" - Whizzer & Chips .

To line up the lights I would place a pencil upright on the middle of the board and adjust the lights until there was no shadow.

The camera was my own - a Bolex H16 Reflex that was bolted to the top of the rostrum. The lens I liked using was a 10mm Switar as it could focus down to about 6 inches. The Bolex (pronounced bowlex) was a clockwork camera and when fully wound up could shoot for about 30 seconds. One very good feature about this camera was the fact you could shoot some film then rewind the film and double expose the film for special effects. This technique was mastered by the “Prof” film makers. One thing you had to be careful about was that the camera had a filter key (behind the lens) that you put filters in to change from daylight film to artificial light and vice versa. If you left this key out of the camera you would fog the film.

For animation I was using single frame, where the object was moved a bit then two frames taken, and this process repeated and repeated. For a 30 second film about 360 pictures would be taken. Once or twice my hand would be in the picture as I was trying to do it too quickly.

At the cinema the projector runs at 24 frames per second, but to my horror TV runs at 25 frames per second, so my calculations were a bit out at first.

The film stock I used was Eastman Color 7247 in 100 ft. rolls, supplied by the BBC. It was a negative film “B” winding, 100 ASA artificial light. “B” winding meant it had only sprocket holes on one side of the film so a magnetic strip could be place on the film for the sound track. The problem I had with using this film was the fact that the red layer was 1000 ASA so I had to load the camera in almost total darkness, I was in a cellar so this proved quite easy. The light meter I used was a Weston Master V with Invercone. There was two ways it could be used. First, place the meter by the camera and take a reading or put the Invercone (white plastic thing) on and place the meter on the object and measure the light hitting it.

My animation skills were terrible and try as I might I could never animate people walking so I would do shots from the waist up, if a long shot was required I would put them behind a wall, fence, hedge etc. I got away with this for a long time but one day I had to do a street scene with lots of people, I panicked and spent a day worried stiff. Then came the solution, I put all the people on pogo sticks and had them bouncing up and down the street. The Beeb loved it and thought it was a wonderful concept. To this day they have'nt twigged!

David Sproxton & Peter Lord - Creature Comforts

One wonders if Wallace & Gromit would ever have materialised had it not been for 'Vision On'. David and Peter set up Aardman Animations in 1972 and created a variety of items for Vision On including the superhero character (right). In 1976 they put together their first 'Morph' animation and were contracted to do 26 five minute animations for 'Take Hart'. Later they joined forces with Nick Park and the rest is history....